I believe that the main reason I have not achieved the success I believe I am capable of is that trading in todays environment makes it very difficult to trade and be able to follow proper risk/reward guidelines. I trade NYSE stocks 1) Especially now with decimals, it is hard to put a stop in at an appropriate place. 2) Often a large bid will enable such a place, but it will disappear when the stock goes back that way. Ultimately, the stock will often print below your stop point and then print again lower, stopping you out much lower than you had decided appropriate. 3) This doesnt even include situations where you pay the spread and merely putting a stop in at the last bid means that you must seek a reward greater than the market may give you. Am I missing something or is there a way to better enable yourself to ensure the risk reward is appropriate on a trade.
I'm no expert on this but I think an answer to your problem would be to put a trigger stop in higher than your risk stop and then execute at your risk stop. To ensure excecution at your risk stop, underask to sell a long position; if the market is slow you should get price improvement to the spread, if it is fast you stand a better chance of execution.
it's hard to give an advice on these. from what I sense, your stop is either - too tight and you are stopped out too often (and at a bad price). your system should be improved. - nothing wrong with the system, but your risk tolerance is smaller than your current stop. you may write more from this so the real problem will be clearer.